The Minimum Data Set (MDS) Frequency data summarizes health status indicators for active residents currently in nursing homes. The MDS is part of the Federally-mandated process for clinical assessment of all residents in Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes. This process provides a comprehensive assessment of each resident's functional capabilities and helps nursing home staff identify health problems. Care Area Assessments (CAAs) are part of this process, and provide the foundation upon which a resident's individual care plan is formulated. MDS assessments are completed for all residents in certified nursing homes, regardless of source of payment for the individual resident. MDS assessments are required for residents on admission to the nursing facility, periodically, and on discharge. All assessments are completed within specific guidelines and time frames. In most cases, participants in the assessment process are licensed health care professionals employed by the nursing home. MDS information is transmitted electronically by nursing homes to the national MDS database at CMS. When reviewing the MDS 3.0 Frequency files, some common software programs e.g., ‘Microsoft Excel’ might inaccurately strip leading zeros from designated code values (i.e., "01" becomes "1") or misinterpret code ranges as dates (i.e., O0600 ranges such as 02-04 are misread as 04-Feb). As each piece of software is unique, if you encounter an issue when reading the CSV file of Frequency data, please open the file in a plain text editor such as ‘Notepad’ or ‘TextPad’ to review the underlying data, before reaching out to CMS for assistance.

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The Long-Term Care Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized, primary screening and assessment tool of health status that forms the foundation of the comprehensive assessment for all residents in a Medicare and or Medicaid-certified long-term care facility. The MDS contains items that measure physical, psychological and psychosocial functioning. The items in the MDS give a multidimensional view of the patients functional capacities and helps staff to identify health problems.

The Long-Term Care Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized, primary screening and assessment tool of health status that forms the foundation of the comprehensive assessment for all residents in a Medicare and or Medicaid-certified long-term care facility. The MDS contains items that measure physical, psychological and psychosocial functioning. The items in the MDS give a multidimensional view of the patients functional capacities and helps staff to identify health problems.

The Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) Nurse Staffing and Non-Nurse Staffing datasets provide information submitted by nursing homes including rehabilitation services on a quarterly basis. The View Data link above includes the hours staff are paid to work each day, for each facility, aggregated by staff reporting category. Examples of reporting categories include Director of Nursing, Administrative Registered Nurses, Registered Nursing, Administrative Licensed Practice Nurses, Licensed Practice Nurses, Certified Nurse Aides, Certified Medication Aides, and Nurse Aides in Training. There are also other non-nurse staff categories provided in the data such as Respiratory Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and Social Worker. The datasets also include a facility’s daily census calculated using the Minimum Data Set (MDS) submission.

The Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) Employee Detail Nursing Home Staffing datasets and technical information have been moved to a new location.

Note: This full dataset contains more records than most spreadsheet programs can handle, which will result in an incomplete load of data. Use of a database or statistical software is required.